Letter to the Editor: Congratulations Seventh-Grade BEAM Students

Congratulations to 7th grade BEAM students,  Yash Bhalla, Shinji Coram, RJ Hovasse, Luke Iler and Ameen Jamal-Eddine for their first place tie at the Destination Imagination Regional Challenge held Saturday at Beverly High School.  The “Jengo Cookies” received top scores in the Verses! Foiled Again challenge for their ability to design & build a weight-bearing structure entirely of wood, glue and tin foil.  The pieces of wood could be no larger than 1/8th –inch thick by 1/8th –inch long and weighing no more than 20 grams, while the height of the structure had to be between 7.5 - 9 inches!  Their structure supported a remarkable 85 pounds of weight before collapsing!  

At the same time, theatrical members presented a clever skit within a skit about competing at the tournament in which the main character was “foiled” from succeeding.  Students earned points for creative structural use of aluminum foil, creativity of their story/skit and workmanship of props or scenery.  The  “Jengo Cookies” will advance to the State Finals to be held on March 24th at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where they will again compete against ALL the State’s first place finishers.

Additional congratulations are extended to 7th grade BEAMers Jessica Gavin, Sarah Iler, Samantha Kakullavarapu, Alegria Paez, Sruti Pandey and Ada Wiggins for their performance in Mythology Mission, in which the “DI-Hard Popcorn Eaters” created an original skit about a mission involving a mythical creature.  Prior to their competition, the “Popcorn Eaters” researched various cultures and their mythologies, information that was integrated into their skit.  Just prior to competing, judges randomly selected one culture (Saudi Arabia), one mythological creature (Genie) and two “props” (beach towel and folding chair), giving the girls five short minutes to create an on-the-spot story for presentation to the audience.  An “unexpected problem” (improvisational element) is part of the design and the team did an expert job weaving the element (losing one’s glasses) into their performance. 

Susan Rogers